The Worst Witch 2017 - The EXPELLED's sculpture
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Sequel to 'EXPELLED,' some years have passed since she was expelled from Cackles. Now Mildred has succeeded in making something of her life and has managed to put the past behind her. Now an artist Mildred is showing off an exhibition off, and she meets a woman who is truly curious about her... but does the woman know Mildred of old?


Author's note - I am so sorry its taken me so long to come up with a sequel to my earlier EXPELLED one-shot where Mildred was, well expelled from Cackles. But the problem was I couldn't find a plausible storyline. It wasn't until the recent series that I got an idea of where I wanted the story to go; a sequel was always what I'd had in mind, but the problem was planning it out.

Anyway, this is ONE of the sequels to the story. The other will begin soon.

Enjoy, and feel free to give me some feedback.

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The EXPELLED's sculpture.

Mildred was standing by her exhibits for the latest show at the art gallery. She had been submitting small pieces of art into different galleries for a while, while some of it didn't get entered, more than a few pieces were allowed into the galleries. But either way, she wasn't going to waste her life pining all her hopes on having her pieces entered into the galleries. Her career as a nurse gave her more than enough to live on, but she had no intention of throwing away her love of art just because of her job.

Her sculpture was slightly taller than her, while next to it was a painting. She had been standing nearby for the past couple of hours, answering and fielding questions from various people who came over to where she was.

A tall and thin woman approached her with a smile, but there was a look of something else in her eyes that Mildred couldn't identify. "Interesting work," the woman commented with a genuine smile.

Mildred turned and smiled at her sculpture and the painting. It had taken Mildred months and months to draw out and to paint, all with oils which had taken a while to dry. The oil painting depicted a young girl wearing a school uniform, only she was wearing a witch's hat, and a cloak and was holding a broomstick while she stood apart from a number of other witches, some of them girls dressed much the same, with the same basic uniform under their cloaks that she remembered only too well from Cackle's Academy before her expulsion.

Although it had hurt her to do it since it had brought back many of her bad memories that had accumulated, she had found it strangely comforting to put the faces of those who had tormented her and abandoned her when Cackle and Hardbroom had expelled her from the Academy on the painting.

Despite her lack of experience with the witching world before that mess Ethel and Drusilla had dropped her into, Mildred had seen enough of magical culture to get a good idea of what to paint and to draw, never mind sculpt. The painting had been taken from her own experiences and mixed with a bit of imagination on the side.

It had taken Mildred a long time to draw and paint the piece, and it had taken even longer to make the sculpture. She hadn't worked with clay, stone, or ordinary bronze. It had been made from junk sourced from different junkyards; really it was amazing what people dumped in places, all she had needed to do was to collect a few pieces and re-mould them into something new. Really, some of the metal of the sculpture used to belong to old cars and other bits and pieces, and it had formed the body of the sculpture of another witch.

The robes, the cloak, and the pointed hat which was as gnarled as an ancient tree while the robes and the cloak were as sinister looking as Lord Voldemort's robes or Palpatine from Star Wars, but the face of the woman was that of Hecate Hardbroom.

The woman looked up at the sculpture, taking in the face, and Mildred saw a look of surprise, worry and humour at the same time almost as though she recognised the face the sculpture was representing. Mildred looked closer at the woman. She didn't know her but she there was something about her manner she recognised…

The woman looked at the painting, and her eyes widened when she saw the faces of the girls and the teachers. "Where did you get the inspiration from?" the woman asked curiously.

Mildred smiled as they stood next to one another, though she was a bit….perturbed by her since the woman and her manner reminded her of Maud, but it had been a long time since Mildred had bothered to think about Maud, Enid, or even Ethel, but she decided to put it out of her mind.

"Oh, I spent a bit of time at a boarding school, but I was expelled for something I didn't do," Mildred replied, glossing over the fact magic and witches actually existed, besides it wasn't as if she was telling a pack of lies, just some half-truths. "The school was enjoyable at first, but everyone treated me as though I wasn't meant to be there, though I recently found out a few years ago that wasn't true," she added as she remembered that little visit she'd received in her flat.

The woman looked at her questioningly. "What do you mean?" she asked curiously, but there was something in her voice that seemed more like simple curiosity but Mildred couldn't place it.

"Oh, I learnt my family was more…special, just like the girls at the school," Mildred replied, "anyway, do you have any more questions for my painting?"

"Yes," the woman said slowly, drawing the word out as she stared back at Mildred, clearly curious and yet mystified by what she'd just revealed, but she got over it quickly, "did you paint the faces of the girls at the school?"

"Yeah, I also used my form tutor as a model for my sculpture; unfair bitch, she made my life hell, and more difficult than it needed to be. She put me in detention frequently, always trying to find an excuse to bring me down, almost like I had offended her just by being alive."

Mildred didn't notice the woman's expression of guilt.

"What about your friends?" she asked, "Surely they weren't bad?"

"They only befriended me out of pity, after that they were glad to see the back of me, though they did try to ask for forgiveness when the truth came out," Mildred said solemnly, wondering why the woman was asking all of these probing questions and wondered if she could get anything else done today. "Anyway, I've got a new life, and I'm happy. That's all we can hope for."

The woman nodded, though it looked like she was on the verge of tears, and Mildred became concerned. "Is everything okay?" she asked.

"What? Erm, yeah, I'm fine," the woman sniffed like she was trying hold back tears, and her eyes were watering. "Anyway, it was lovely meeting you, goodbye."

The woman hurried away, sniffling louder and Mildred watched in concern and confusion as she walked away, a niggling feeling at the back of her mind, that feeling that she knew this woman coming back to haunt her. But she didn't have time to dwell on the matter, because someone else was speaking to her and she turned her attention to her. By the end of the day she had more or less forgotten the woman.

0000000000000000000000000

In truth, she had no idea what had made her visit the art gallery because while she had managed to get by in art, and did moderately well in art when Miss Mould had become the art teacher in her second year, but it had felt like a knife to her heart since the subject brought back memories of Mildred before Ethel had destroyed everything good, but the classes had been amazing before it was revealed she was in Agatha's coven and had been posted as a spy who had wanted to find the location of Agatha's prison after her third attempt to take control of the school. Something that had angered the Great Wizard, who had had her imprisoned in a photograph with Miss Gullet.

Maud Spellbody had been wandering around the non-magical world while she was taking a break from college when she'd seen the gallery with a fantasy theme and she had decided to visit the exhibition out of simple curiosity. She had wanted to see the exhibition to see how the non-magical world saw magic.

Would they see it as evil as the stories of the witch-hunts portrayed, or would they see it differently in this century when they didn't have any factual or visible proof of magic, broomsticks or creatures like werewolves and vampires?

But Maud had not expected to see Mildred. At first, she hadn't noticed the other girl, but when she did she was amazed and blown away. Part of her had wanted to rush over to her friend, and hug the daylights out of her, but then her logical side had reared its head and she remembered the memory Cackle and HB had shown to the school of their visit to the Hubble's flat.

Seeing the way Mildred and Julie had reacted to them, how Mildred had lashed out at Miss Cackle when the stupid woman had insulted Julie in such an off-hand way, no wonder she had been put off, but Maud had seen the memory. She had later told Enid, who had agreed with her completely, Mildred's decision to not go anywhere near Cackles or the witching world had already been pre-ordained. The fact the teachers had decided to drop by and visit Mildred after too much valuable time had passed had likely not helped, but then Mildred's expulsion and Ethel's confession had caused so much mess it made sense Cackle and HB would have needed time to mitigate the worst of it.

But seeing Mildred's anger in that manner when HB went to talk to her, accusing the potions mistress of using magic in such a terrible manner to force Mildred to return… it had blown everybody away. It had broken her heart and she had needed to write her final letter three times before she realised it was legible enough for the other girl to read. More than once during that mess she wished Cackle hadn't torn up the Mirror cards to Mildred's flat, it would have made life easier than writing.

But Mildred had obviously moved on. She was happy, she was healthy, and judging from her exhibit she was quite successful with art. Maud had used a spell to disguise herself and her basic features and she had deliberately made herself tall and thin because she didn't know if Mildred would recognise her with a different build or not so she couldn't take the risk.

She had caught Mildred's look of confusion and there was a slight recognition in the girl's brown eyes like she had been able to see through Maud's spellwork, but because of her lack of experience with magic Mildred's hadn't made the connection.

Maud had not expected Mildred to have favourable memories of Cackles, and she was right. Seeing that girl apart from her peers in that painting, it had brought home dozens of memories of how Mildred had been treated at Cackles but she had wondered about the other girl's motives behind that sculpture of Miss Hardbroom. She could take a few guesses, but her mind was on other things.

It didn't surprise Maud in the least Mildred believed Hardbroom had been an unfair bitch; her parents had spent years teaching her how magic worked while giving her the chance to learn it for herself and develop her own repertoire, but they had made it clear that some witch teachers were incredibly hard on their students. While their methods were nearly identical, while some were harsher and harder on the more weaker students, their desire to bring out really strong witches was the same. Mildred, being from the non-magical world, had been an easy target and considering she knew next to nothing about the magical world and its traditions, she had never understood why HB had treated her that way.

But what had surprised and horrified Maud was how Mildred had seen their friendship. Did Mildred really think she and Enid had only befriended her out of pity? Had things really gotten that bad?

But then she remembered the way Mildred had been expelled, and all the things she and Enid had said directly to the dark-haired girl's face while tears had rolled down Mildred's cheeks.

Maud had genuinely liked Mildred, but for the dark-haired girl to think that… but then she remembered how things had been at Cackles in the aftermath.

Ethel Hallow had not been expelled from the school. Miss Cackle showed she was a lot more cunning than that, and she had made sure the girl received next to no credit whatsoever. Ethel had become the most hated girl in the school, and even her elder sister Esmerelda had found it hard to be near the younger girl at first, but she had always forgiven Ethel though she had been disgusted by how far Ethel was willing to go just to receive some kind of recognition.

Over time Maud had wondered what they were hoping to achieve by attacking Ethel all the time, it wasn't going to bring Mildred back. Eventually, her view had spread throughout the school. For the rest of her time at the school, Ethel had been friendless and virtually alone, and the only people to bother with her had been Esmerelda and her younger sister, Sybil. Personally, Maud felt that was the best punishment, though whether Ethel realised it or not she couldn't tell.

The Spelling Bee competition with Pentangles had come at a bad time. Instead of more than one student to compete, Ethel had been the only one, and the school had almost won the round, but Pentangles had succeeded because Miss Pentangle had brought two students whereas Cackles had only had the one, but Maud guessed that in another world Mildred would not have been allowed to take part anyway.

Another surprising thing was when Mildred had said the girls at the school had made her life a misery because they had felt she didn't belong, but what had she meant when she had said that she did belong? Maud could not work it out, not without breaking her cover to confront Mildred directly, and she couldn't do that. Who knew how Mildred would react, but after that memory and her newly acquired dislike for magic, it was likely she would not be happy to see anyone from Cackles.

She was so tempted to go back into the gallery as she truly was and talk to Mildred. It would be so easy, and even if her attitude had not really changed Maud had the chance to make things right-

No. It was far from a good idea.

Even if she could convince Mildred that she just wanted to talk, the other girl would either just walk away in a towering temper or she might even use her magic, and Maud had no idea if Mildred had found a way to practice her powers after being expelled from Cackles.

As much as she would love to go back and talk to her, Maud was not that brave. She was not sure if she wanted to see Mildred's fury and hatred close up and personal.

She was too much of a coward.

So, in the end…. Maud decided to swallow and walk away.

"I'm so sorry, Mildred."


End file.
